Moving cartridges within a shuttle complex

{
  "publication_number": "US2018144771A1",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "A1",
  "title": "Moving cartridges within a shuttle complex",
  "abstract": "The present description is directed to moving a cartridge including a storage medium within a shuttle complex that includes numerous shuttle connections, and a plurality of library strings connected by at least one shuttle connection. Each shuttle connection has a car able to move within the shuttle connection and each library string has at least one cartridge including a storage medium. The shuttle complex identifies a library string that contains the access-cartridge (LSAC), identifies whether there is a drive within the LSAC that has a second cartridge mounted therein which comprises only inactive data chunks, removes the second cartridge from the drive within the LSAC if an elapsed time since the drive within the LSAC most recently accessed the second cartridge exceeds a predetermined time period threshold, and mounts the access-cartridge to the drive within the LSAC.",
  "claims": [
    "1. A method to move an access-cartridge including a storage medium within a shuttle complex having a plurality of library strings connected by a plurality of shuttle connections, the method comprising: identifying a library string comprising the access-cartridge (LSAC); determining whether there is a local drive amongst a plurality of local drives within the LSAC that has a second cartridge mounted therein which comprises only inactive data chunks; removing the second cartridge from the local drive within the LSAC and mounting the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC, if an elapsed time since the local drive within the LSAC most recently accessed the second cartridge exceeds a predetermined time period threshold; and if the elapsed time since the local drive within the LSAC most recently accessed the second cartridge does not exceed the predetermined time period threshold: identifying a remote drive within a remote library string (LSR) connected to the LSAC by at least one shuttle connection; moving the access-cartridge from the LSAC to the LSR with the at least one shuttle connection; and mounting the access-cartridge to the remote drive within the LSR. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the access-cartridge is located within a slot of the LSAC prior to mounting the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the access-cartridge is a tape cartridge and wherein each of the plurality of library strings comprises a plurality of tape drives for accessing a mounted tape cartridge, and a plurality of slots for accommodating a tape cartridge. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein mounting the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC comprises: moving with a first robotic arm within the LSAC the second cartridge from the local drive within the LSAC; and moving with the first robotic arm within the LSAC the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the local drive within the LSAC has the second cartridge mounted therein which comprises only inactive data chunks comprises: previously determining that all the plurality of local drives within the LSAC have a respective cartridge mounted therein. 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined time period threshold is a time period that which a subsequent access of a cartridge after the cartridge was most recently accessed occurs in less than half of access occurrences. 7. The method of claim 5, wherein the predetermined time period threshold is a time period that which a subsequent access of a cartridge after the cartridge was most recently accessed occurs in less than ninety percent of access occurrences. 8.- 13. (canceled) 14. A computer program product for use with a shuttle complex system having a plurality of shuttle connections, each shuttle connection having a car able to move within the shuttle connection, and a plurality of library strings connected by at least one shuttle connection, each library string having at least one cartridge including a storage medium and at least one processor having storage including program instructions that when executed by one or more of the processors, causes the shuttle complex to: identify a library string comprising the access-cartridge (LSAC); identify whether there is a local drive amongst a plurality of local drives within the LSAC that has a second cartridge mounted therein which comprises only inactive data chunks; remove the second cartridge from the local drive within the LSAC and mount the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC, if an elapsed time since the local drive within the LSAC most recently accessed the second cartridge exceeds a predetermined time period threshold; and if the elapsed time since the local drive within the LSAC most recently accessed the second cartridge does not exceed the predetermined time period threshold: identify a remote drive within a remote library string (LSR) connected to the LSAC by at least one shuttle connection; move the access-cartridge from the LSAC to the LSR with the at least one shuttle connection; and mount the access-cartridge to the remote drive within the LSR. 15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the access-cartridge is located within a slot of the LSAC prior to mounting the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC. 16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the access-cartridge including the storage medium is a tape cartridge and wherein each of the plurality of library strings includes a plurality of tape drives for accessing a tape cartridge, and a plurality of slots for accommodating a tape cartridge. 17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the program instructions that mount the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC further cause the shuttle complex to: move with a first robotic arm within the LSAC the second cartridge from the local drive within the LSAC; and move with the first robotic arm within the LSAC the access-cartridge to the local drive within the LSAC. 18. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the program instructions that determine whether the local drive within the LSAC has the second cartridge mounted therein which comprises only inactive data chunks further causes the shuttle complex to: previously determine that all the plurality of local drives within the LSAC have a respective cartridge mounted therein. 19. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the predetermined time period threshold is a time period that which a subsequent access of a cartridge after the cartridge was most recently accessed occurs in less than half of access occurrences. 20. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the predetermined time period threshold is a time period that which a subsequent access of a cartridge after the cartridge was most recently accessed occurs in less than ninety percent of access occurrences. 21. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the remote drive within the LSR comprises: previously determining that all drives within the shuttle complex have a respective cartridge mounted therein. 22. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the remote drive within the LSR comprises: previously determining that the remote drive does not have a cartridge mounted therein. 23. The method of claim 1, wherein moving the access-cartridge from the LSAC to the LSR with the at least one shuttle connection comprises: moving, with the first robotic arm within the LSAC, the access-cartridge to a car within the at least one shuttle connection; moving the access-cartridge to the LSR with the car; and moving, with a second robotic arm within the LSR, the access-cartridge from the car to the remote drive within the LSR. 24. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the program instructions that cause the shuttle complex to identify the remote drive within the LSR further causes the shuttle complex to: previously determine that all drives within the shuttle complex have a respective cartridge mounted therein. 25. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the program instructions that cause the shuttle complex to identify the remote drive within the LSR further causes the shuttle complex to: previously determine that the remote drive does not have a cartridge mounted therein. 26. The method of claim 1, wherein the program instructions that cause the shuttle complex to move the access-cartridge from the LSAC to the LSR with the at least one shuttle connection further cause the shuttle complex to: move, with the first robotic arm within the LSAC, the access-cartridge to a car within the at least one shuttle connection; move the access-cartridge to the LSR with the car; and move, with a second robotic arm within the LSR, the access-cartridge from the car to the remote drive within the LSR."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "Embodiments of the present invention relate to moving cartridges within a shuttle complex.\n\nA shuttle complex has been proposed for libraries in which a plurality of library strings connecting a plurality of libraries with storage media such as tapes are arranged in rows, and the library strings are connected by shuttle connections. This shuttle complex is already in practical use (IBM System Storage TS3500, etc.). In this shuttle complex, cars able to move within a shuttle connection move cartridges including storage media such as tapes between library strings, and the cartridges are mounted in a drive or stored in a slot within the library frame specified as the destination point. In methods of the prior art for moving cartridges between library strings, when there is no car in the library string at the departure point, an available (empty) car has to be moved from the closest library string before the cartridge can be loaded into the car and moved to the library string at the destination point. Therefore, the time required to move cartridges between library strings is extended to include the movement of empty cars, and the amount of time required to move empty cars increases as both the traveling distances of cartridges and the number of traveling runs increases.\n\nIn one embodiment of the present description, a method is presented to move an access-cartridge including a storage medium within a shuttle complex having a plurality of library strings connected by a plurality of shuttle connections.",
  "cpc": [
    "G11B 15/689",
    "B65G 1/0407",
    "G11B 15/67502",
    "G11B 15/6835",
    "G11B 15/6885",
    "G11B 15/6895",
    "G11B 17/228",
    "G11B 27/002",
    "G11B 27/10",
    "G11B 27/102"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B65G 1/04",
    "G11B 15/675",
    "G11B 15/68"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "IBM"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "HASEGAWA TOHRU",
    "HASEGAWA YUHKO"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2016-11-22",
  "publication_date": "2018-05-24",
  "priority_date": "2016-11-22",
  "application_number": "US-201615358490-A",
  "family_id": "62147726",
  "citations": [
    "US10037151B2",
    "US2014052907A1",
    "US2015050106A1",
    "US2015347028A1"
  ]
}